Here are two hints about the most likely way in which the ABC series Lost will end … Details after the series finale, on Sunday May 23, 2010.

The Ouroboros or Uroborus[1] is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle.

The Ouroboros often represents self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end (compare Phoenix). It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting from the beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extinguished. The ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular nature of the alchemist’s opus. It is also often associated with Gnosticism, and Hermeticism.

The shape of the Möbius Strip probably dates to ancient times. An Alexandrian manuscript of early Alchemical diagrams contains an illustration with the visual proportions of the Möbius Strip. This image, on a page titled “The Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra“, has the appearance of an Ouroboros, and is referred to as the “One, All”.[4]

A model can easily be created by taking a paper strip and giving it a half-twist, and then joining the ends of the strip together to form a loop. In Euclidean space there are in fact two types of Möbius strips depending on the direction of the half-twist: clockwise and counterclockwise. The Möbius strip is therefore chiral, which is to say that it has “handedness” (as in right-handed or left-handed).